Jacob de Geldersman (d. 1546)

Jacob de Geldersman, an Anabaptist martyr, a native of Harderwijk, Dutch province of Gelderland, died at the stake at Amsterdam, 24 May 1546 with Dirk Pieters Smuel. In the sentence he is called Jacob Elberts van Harderwijk. Both lived in Edam and on 12 March were seized at home by the court procurator of The Hague and the sheriff of Amster­dam and taken to prison. Smuel was a preacher who had for several years been preaching secretly, and rejected the confessional, purgatory, and the Mass. Jacob had refused to honor the host when the priest approached him with it. He attended Smuel's sermons. The Martyrs' Mirror indicates that a fourth man (Andries Smuel) had apparently also been arrested; but there is no verdict concern­ing him. The two were sentenced at The Hague, but executed in Amsterdam. Van Braght gives a part of the sentence, Smuel's will to his wife Wellemoet Claes, and a letter to the brotherhood. They stated that they owned no books by Menno Simons or David Joris; but in addition to the Bible they possessed a "booklet on the faith." His letters are very well written, with an abundance of Biblical citations; but they contain no special information. The execution lasted more than 24 hours.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 475. Available online at: http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index.htm.